Wes Anderson's Latest Script Called, 'The Rosenthaler Suite' Aka His Adaptation Of 'My Best Friend'

A treat arrived at our doorstep this weekend, which made the grueling week all the more tolerable: Wes Anderson's "The Rosenthaler Suite," aka his adaptation of Patrice Leconte's 2006 French film, "Mon Meilleur Ami," ("My Best Friend") that he signed on to write in September 2008 for Universal.

Yes, "The Rosenthaler Suite" is the title of the film? Why? Sit put.

The original is a tale about friendship, its implications and its costs and stars Daniel Auteuil from "Cache" (and many, many other French films) as a brusque, jackass, going-broke antiques dealer (don't whine about spoilers, this is a remake of a film that already exists). The selfish and self-centered man's life is changed when his business partner (Julie Gayet), sick of his egocentricity, at his birthday party bets him that he has no true "best friend" as evinced by the paucity of people in attendance and the lack of anyone who isn't anything more than just an outside business associate.

The man is suddenly awaken to his life when he is shocked to realize that not only does he have no best friend, many of the people who he thinks are buddies, actually despise him. So with a bet deadline looming — 10 days to prove he has a best friend or hand over a treasured antique prize he is angling for — he desperately tries to find someone to be his best friend and enlists an amiable cab driver (French comedian Danny Boon most recently featured in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Micmacs") to help him out.

Clearly having been antisocial and narcissistic for all his life, Auteuil's character asks Bruno to "teach him" the secrets of friendship: smiling, sociability, sincerity and the natural elements of bonding that have eluded him since childhood. Eventually, Auteuil realizes that Boon is the one person who really displays unconditional friendship and the film essentially gives a funny, tender and warmhearted view of the values of friendship.

Wes Anderson's version: "The Rosenthaler Suite": Anderson's version, a first draft mind you, submitted at the end of the summer, is very faithful version of the original, but of course there are changes. The main character Nicholas is a self-centered art dealer in New York City (he is late 40s, silver-haired and this part screams out for George Clooney). The female character that bets Nicholas he has no friends is split into two. His lesbian business partner in the original is now his lesbian assistant Natalie, though he treats her just as poorly (hard to say who this role could be, several disparate females come to mind including Kate Hudson, Michelle Williams — she's described as a small blond — or going against type Rebecca Hall). The woman who makes the actual bet at his birthday party is converted into a rival art dealer, a graying, cold older woman named Lucinda (it must either be played by Meryl Streep orAngelica Huston, but we like Streep; either would work amazingly well).

What also changes, and gives the film it's title is "The Rosenthaler Suite," which is a collection of paintings made by Moses Rosenthaler, an elderly and overlooked painter who is dying of cancer. The unscrupulous Nicholas has been buying up all his paintings over town because he senses a greedy opportunity in the revisionist celebration of his work posthumously. Lucinda becomes aware of Nicholas' scheme because dealing with debt, he needs an art collecting partner to help him float the total purchases. After the aforementioned birthday party, the rosenthaler suite becomes the bet (for the aging and gray Moses Rosenthaler there could be many mainstays cast including Bill Murray or Brian Cox, but he does sound like an imposing Max Von Sydow character; the character's introduction midway in the script is hilarious).

The secondary cab driver character in the film becomes a Polish character named Zbigniew and instead of being a trivia buff as he is in the original, he becomes a classical music connoisseur. We obviously put Owen Wilson in the graphic above, but we're really not sure he could pull off the character as he's supposed to be accented and actually Polish, but we're at a loss over who to pick otherwise (Maybe Jason Schwartzman? He feels a little young here, but Adrien Brody actually might work).

Other roles in the film include art dealer "friends" that turn out to be enemies who we could see being played by people like Seymour Cassel, Michael Gambon, Bud Cort and one small, but juicy role seems perfect for Fred Melman (Sy, in the Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man").

As for the script itself? It's a nice enough script and a fun read, but Wes' dialogue style and specific attention to dress and style can be stifling at times. Sometimes the simplistic vibe (though, similar to the original here) can be too cute and not real enough to resonate. If those title-card-like inserts are done in a font other than futura, if he cast's outside his comfort zone, cuts out the slow-mo shots, this could be interesting and honest (and to be fair it feels like most of these very familiar elements aren't really called for or obviously written into the script). And there's no dad issues in this one either! The second half of the script, which deviates away from the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,"-trivia conceit of the original (a smart move, 'Slumdog' played that out), is definitely more enjoyable and provides heart and laughs, but we think the first act could do with a few more original (and funnier) things to convey what a thoughtless asshole Nicholas is (Anderson has always done this character well, see Herman Blume, Steve Zissou and Royal Tenenbaum, but nothing Nicholas does early on is quite as funny).

All of these casting guesses on our part are with the assumption that Anderson would direct, but of course when he took this assignment it was unclear if he would actually lens it in the end himself or not, but of course it seems like something so tailor-made by him that it would be tough to see anyone else direct.

However we have two suggestions. 1) Take another crack at it. It's a good first draft, but as it stands it feels like "The Darjeeling Limited" or later Anderson-work in quality (i.e. enjoyable, but he's done better). 2) Give it to a friend like Roman Coppola, he hasn't directed in ages and maybe could bring a new sensibility to it.

So is this next for Anderson? Maybe not as he has said recently that he's working on original material, but we'll see. There's promise here and we'd like to eventually see this one happen. Ron Howard's longtime producing partner Brian Grazer, is a co-producer here and it's Anderson first partnership with Imagine Entertainment.